Truth behind viral The Simpsons photo of Donald Trump amid assassination attempt

Donald Trump’s US presidency may have been sensationally predicted in an episode of The Simpsons years before it eventuated in 2016.

While the beloved US sitcom has become renowned for forecasting a host of events, its longtime executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman has condemned the spread of the image, revealing it was “doctored”.

“The image of Donald Trump in a coffin never appeared on The Simpsons. It is doctored,” Selman said in a statement.

Selman, who has won six Emmys for his work on the series, later told TMZ, “Anyone who thinks The Simpsons would include such horrifying content on a family TV show doesn’t really watch the show or have any understanding of The Simpsons at all.”

It’s not the first time misinformation has spread in regards to The Simpsons predicting the future.

In the 2000 Simpsons episode ‘Bart to the Future’, the show depicts Lisa Simpson as president, who is tasked with cleaning up Trump’s mess following his fictional presidency – 15 years before he announced he was running for office in real life.

 

Given its reputation for predicting the future, fans are quick to believe any reference to the show’s past storylines, which often emerge on social media in the wake of newsworthy events.

More recently, many suggested The Simpsons predicted the downfall of rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, with an image circulating showing him as a Simpsons character running from police.

In May, Selman confirmed it never aired as a storyline on The Simpsons.

“In the current era of digital misinformation, The Simpsons ‘predictions’ (or, more accurately, ‘coincidences’) have become meaningless,” Selman told TMZ.

“Any goofball can whip up an AI image based on a current event and say ‘The Simpsons predicted it!’ — and decent-but-easily-misled folks will believe it because they so very want it to be true.”